Attachment Styles, Memories of Parental Rearing and Therapeutic Bond: A Study with Eating Disordered Patients, Their Parents and Therapists Susana Tereno 1 * , y , Isabel Soares 1 , Carla Martins 1 , Mariana Celani 2 and Daniel Sampaio 3 1 Department of Psychology, University of Minho, Portugal 2 Eating Disorders Unit, Sta. Maria Hospital, Portugal 3 Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, Portugal Patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (n ¼ 30) and bulimia nervosa (n ¼ 27), their parents and therapists were recruited for this study aimed at examining differences between clinical groups and a control group (n ¼ 35) in terms of attachment styles and perceptions of memories of parental rearing. Within the clinical groups, relations among these variables and therapeutic bond were explored. In addition, parents’ and their daughters’ attachment styles were compared. The results showed differences between clinical and control groups: the daughters in the control group reported lower levels of attachment anxiety compared to those of the clinical groups; their mothers exhibited higher security than mothers of anorectic patients and lower avoidance than mothers of bulimic patients. For the anorectic group, therapeutic bond was associated to higher father’s emotional support and lower rejection; in the bulimic group, therapeutic bond was related to higher maternal emotional support and lower rejection as well as to lower paternal overprotection. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Keywords: attachment styles; memories of parental rearing; therapeutic bond; eating disorders INTRODUCTION In the last decade, attachment theory as a concep- tual framework for the understanding of psycho- pathology has provided the grounds for empirical studies with different clinical groups. Following this trend, the present study aims to extend the focus on attachment from the parental relations in the past to the current intimate relations, and the quality of the therapeutic alliance in a group of anorectic and bulimic patients. Two important empirical reviews explored the relations between eating disorders and attachment (O’Kearney, 1996; Ward, Ramsay, & Treasure, 2000) showing that the insecure pattern is mostly European Eating Disorders Review Eur. Eat. Disorders Rev. 16, 49–58 (2008) * Correspondence to: Susana Tereno, Department of Psychol- ogy, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710 Braga, Portugal. Tel: 00351 253 604257. Fax: 00351 253 604221. E-mail: stereno@iep.uminho.pt y Researcher with a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal. Copyright # 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Published online 18 September 2007 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/erv.801